starting out with c++: early objects 5/e © 2006 pearson education. all rights reserved starting out...

Starting Out with C++: Early Objects 5/e © 2006 Pearson Education. All Rights Reserved

Starting Out with C++: Early Objects 5th Edition

Chapter 13

Advanced File and I/O Operations

Chapter 13 Starting Out with C++: Early Objects 5/eslide 2

© 2006 Pearson Education. All Rights Reserved

Topics

13.1 Files

13.2 Output Formatting

13.3 Passing File Stream Objects to Functions

13.4 More Detailed Error Testing

13.5 Member Functions for Reading and Writing Files



Topics (continued)

13.6 Working with Multiple Files

13.7 Binary Files

13.8 Creating Records with Structures

13.9 Random-Access Files

13.10 Opening a File for Both Input and

Output



13.1 Files

• Set of data stored on a computer, often on a disk drive

• Programs can read from, write to files• Used in many applications:

– Word processing – Databases– Spreadsheets– Compilers



File Naming Conventions

• Different systems may have different requirements on how to name a file:– MS-DOS: up to 8 characters, a dot, up to a 3

character extension. No spaces. Example:

sales.dat

• Extension often indicates purpose of file:– .doc: Microsoft Word file– .cpp: C++ source file– .h: C++ header file



Steps to Using a File

1. Open the file

2. Use (read from, write to) the file

3. Close the file



File Stream Objects

• Use of files requires file stream objects

• There are three types of file stream objects

(1) ifstream objects: used for input

(2) ofstream objects: used for output

(3) fstream objects: used for both input and output



File Names

• File name can be a full pathname to file:c:\data\student.dat

tells compiler exactly where to look • File name can also be simple name:

student.dat

this must be in the same directory as the program executable, or in the compiler's default directory



Opening a File

• A file is known to the system by its name

• To use a file, a program needs to connect a suitable stream object to the file. This is known as opening the file

• Opening a file is achieved through the open member function of a file stream object



Opening a File for Input

• Create an ifstream object in your program

ifstream inFile;• Open the file by passing its name to the

stream’s open member function

inFile.open("myfile.dat");



Getting File Names from Users

• Define file stream object, variable to hold file nameifstream inFile;char FileName(81);

• Prompt user to enter filename and read the filename

cout << "Enter filename: ";cin.getline(FileName, 81);

• Open the fileinFile.open(FileName);



Opening a File for Output

• Create an ofstream object in your program

ofstream outFile;• Open the file by passing its name to the

stream’s open member function

outFile.open("myfile.dat");



The fstream Object• fstream object can be used for either input or

output

fstream file;• To use fstream for input, specify ios::in as

the second argument to open file.open("myfile.dat",ios::in);• To use fstream for output, specify ios::out

as the second argument to open file.open("myfile.dat",ios::out);



Opening a File for Input and Output

• fstream object can be used for both input and output at the same time

• Create the fstream object and specify both ios::in and ios::out as the second argument to the open member function

fstream file;

file.open("myfile.dat",

ios::in|ios::out);



Opening Files with Constructors

• Stream constructors have overloaded versions that take the same parameters as open

• These constructors open the file, eliminating the need for a separate call to open

fstream inFile("myfile.dat", ios::in);



File Open Modes

• File open modes specify how a file is opened and what can be done with the file once it is open

• ios::in and ios::out are examples of file open modes, also called file mode flags

• File modes can be combined and passed as second argument of open member function



File Mode Flags

ios::app create new file, or append to end of existing file

ios::ate go to end of existing file; write anywhere

ios::binary read/write in binary mode (not text mode)

ios::in open for input

ios::out open for output



File Open Modes

• Not all combinations of file open modes make sense

• ifstream and ofstream have default file open modes defined for them, hence the second parameter to their open member function is optional



Default File Open Modes• ofstream:

– open for output only– file cannot be read from– file created if no file exists– file contents erased if file exists

• ifstream: – open for input only– file cannot be written to– open fails if file does not exist



Detecting File Open Errors

• Two methods for detecting if a file open failed

(1) Call fail() on the stream

inFile.open("myfile");

if (inFile.fail())

{ cout << "Can't open file";

exit(1);

}



Detecting File Open Errors

(2) Test the status of the stream using the ! operator inFile.open("myfile"); if (!inFile) { cout << "Can't open file"; exit(1); }



Using fail() to detect eof• Example of reading all integers in a file //attempt a read int x; infile >> x; while (!infile.fail()) { //success, so not eof cout << x; //read again infile >> x; }



Using >> to detect eof• To detect end of file, fail() must be

called immediately after the call to >>• The extraction operator returns the

same value that will be returned by the next call to fail:

- (infile >> x) is nonzero if >> succeeds

- (infile >> x) is zero if >> fails



Detecting End of File• Reading all integers in a file int x; while (infile >> x) { // read was successful cout >> x; // go to top of loop and // attempt another read }



13.2 Output Formatting

• Can format with I/O manipulators: they work with file objects just like they work with cout

• Can format with formatting member functions

• The ostringstream class allows in-memory formatting into a string object

before writing to a file



I/O Manipulators

left, right left or right justify output

oct, dec, hex

display output in octal, decimal, or hexadecimal

endl, flush write newline (endl only) and flush output

showpos, noshowpos

do, do not show leading + with non-negative numbers

showpoint, noshowpoint

do, do not show decimal point and trailing zeroes



More I/O Manipulators

fixed, scientific

use fixed or scientific notation for floating-point numbers

setw(n) sets minimum field output width to n

setprecision(n) sets floating-point precision to n

setfill(ch) uses ch as fill character



Formatting with Member Functions

• Can also use stream object member functions to format output:gradeFile.width(3); // like

// setw(3)• Names of member functions may differ

from manipulators.



Formatting with Member Functions

Member Function Manipulator or Meaningwidth(n) setw(n)precision(n) setprecision(n)setf() set format flagsunsetf() disable format flags



sstream Formatting

1) To format output into an in-memory string object, include the sstream header file and create an ostringstream object

#include <sstream> ostringstream outStr;



sstream Formatting

2) Write to the ostringstream object using I/O manipulators, all other stream member functions:

outStr << showpoint << fixed << setprecision(2) << 'S'<< amount;



sstream Formatting

3) Access the C-string inside the ostringstream object by calling its str member function

cout << outStr.str();



13.3 Passing File Stream Objects to Functions

• File stream objects keep track of current read or write position in the file

• Always use pass a file object as parameter to a function using pass by reference



Passing File Stream Objects to Functions

//print all integers in a file to screen

void printFile(ifstream &in)

{ int x;

while(in >> x)

{ out << x << " "; }

}



13.4 More Detailed Error Testing

• Streams have error bits (flags) that are set by every operation to indicate success or failure of the operation, and the status of the stream

• Stream member functions report on the settings of the flags



Error State Bits• Can examine error state bits to determine file

stream status

ios::eofbit set when end of file detected

ios::failbit set when operation failed

ios::hardfail set when an irrecoverable error occurred

ios::badbit set when invalid operation attempted

ios::goodbit set when no other bits are set



Error Bit Reporting Functions

eof() true if eofbit set, false otherwise

fail() true if failbit or hardfail set, false otherwise

bad() true if badbit set, false otherwise

good() true if goodbit set, false otherwise

clear() clear all flags (no arguments), or clear a specific flag



13.5 Member Functions for Reading and Writing Files

• Unlike the extraction operator >>, these reading functions do not skip whitespace: getline: read a line of input

get: reads a single character

seekg: goes to beginning of input file



getline Member Function

• getline(char s[ ], int max, char stop ='\n')

– char s[ ]: Character array to hold input– int max : Maximum number of characters

to read– char stop: Terminator to stop at if

encountered before max number of characters is read . Default is '\n'



Single Character Input

• get(char &ch)

Read a single character from the input stream. Does not skip whitespace.

ifstream inFile; char ch;

inFile.open("myFile");

inFile.get(ch);

cout << "Got " << ch;



Single Character Output

• put(char ch)

Output a character to a file

• Example

ofstream outFile;

outFile.open("myfile");

outFile.put('G');



Single Character I/O

• To copy an input file to an output file char ch; infile.get(ch); while (!infile.fail()) { outfile.put(ch); infile.get(ch); } infile.close(); outfile.close();



Moving About in Input Files• seekg(offset, place) Move to a given offset relative to a given place in the file

– offset: number of bytes from place, specified as a long

– place: location in file from which to compute offset•ios::beg: beginning of file•ios::end: end of the file•ios::cur: current position in file



Rewinding a File

• To move to beginning of file, seek to an offset of zero from beginning of fileinFile.seekg(0L, ios::beg);

• Error or eof bits will block seeking to the beginning of file. Clear bits first:

inFile.clear();

inFile.seekg(0L, ios::beg);



13.6 Working with Multiple Files

• Can have more than one file open at a time in a program

• Files may be open for input or output

• Need to define stream object for each file



13.7 Binary Files

• Binary files store data in the same format that a computer has in main memory

• Text files store data in which numeric values have been converted into strings of ASCII characters

• Files are opened in text mode (as text files) by default



Using Binary Files

• Pass the ios::binary flag to the open member function to open a file in binary mode

infile.open("myfile.dat",ios::binary);

• Reading and writing of binary files requires special read and write member functions

read(char *buffer, int numberBytes) write(char *buffer, int numberBytes)



Using read and write

read(char *buffer, int numberBytes)write(char *buffer, int numberBytes)

• buffer: holds an array of bytes to transfer between memory and the file

• numberBytes: the number of bytes to transfer

Address of the buffer needs to be cast to char * using reinterpret_cast



Using write

• To write an array of 2 doubles to a binary file

ofstream outFile("myfile", ios:binary); double d[2] = {12.3, 34.5}; outFile.write( reinterpret_cast<char *>(d), sizeof(d) );



Using read• To read two 2 doubles from a binary file into an

array

ifstream inFile("myfile", ios:binary); const int DSIZE = 10; double data[DSIZE]; inFile.read( reinterpret_cast<char *>(data), 2*sizeof(double) ); // only data[0] and data[1] contain // values



13.8 Creating Records with Structures

• Can write structures to, read structures from files

• To work with structures and files, – use binary file flag upon open– use read, write member functions



Creating Records with Structures

struct TestScore{ int studentId;float score;char grade;

};TestScore test1[20];...// write out test1 array to a filegradeFile.write( reinterpret_cast<char*>(test1), sizeof(test1));



13.9 Random-Access Files

• Sequential access: start at beginning of file and go through data in file, in order, to end– to access 100th entry in file, go through 99

preceding entries first

• Random access: access data in a file in any order– can access 100th entry directly



Random Access Member Functions

•seekg (seek get): used with input files

•seekp (seek put): used with output files

• Both are used to go to a specific position in a file



Random Access Member Functions

• seekg(offset,place)• seekp(offset,place)offset:long integer specifying number of bytes to moveplace: starting point for the move, specified by ios:beg, ios::cur or ios:end



Random-Access Member Functions

• Examples:// Set read position 25 bytes // after beginning of fileinData.seekg(25L, ios::beg);

// Set write position 10 bytes// before current positionoutData.seekp(-10L, ios::cur);



Random Access Information

• tellg member function: return current byte position in input fileint whereAmI;

whereAmI = inFile.tellg();

• tellp member function: return current byte position in output filewhereAmI = outFile.tellp();



13.10 Opening a File for Both Input and Output

• File can be open for input and output simultaneously

• Supports updating a file:– read data from file into memory– update data– write data back to file

• Use fstream for file object definition: fstream gradeList("grades.dat",

ios::in | ios::out);

starting out with c++: early objects 5/e © 2006 pearson education. all rights reserved starting out...

Documents

c header file slide

advanced file

purpose of file

c source file

early objects

passing file stream

types of file stream

output slide